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Both levi and shimoda need a 450 ride soon, but the kawi 450 team is a complete disaster. PC kawi 450 would make perfect sense for both of them though since they both rode/ride for pc and had very good results. They could turn this ship right around. Dump the factory effort, pc makes a 450 team, levi stays with pc and just moves up to the 450, and then they sign shimoda. That would be a strong 450 team and could put this whole saga to rest.
They did this with Broc Tickle and I think they did really well. I always wonder how much they work together (250 PC and 450 factory), if they work together at all
You need to realise that PC riders contracts are from Factory Kawi, so makes no sense most of the time.
Only 3 riders have done it over the years - Brownie in Supercross 01-03, Rattray and as mentioned above Tickle.
Tickle was one of the "point out" victims, but had a Kawi contract in place that hadn't considered the rule/ wasn't in place at the time, so he stepped up to the 450 and stayed on it for outdoors.
Rattray was moved up to cover RV outdoors when he was injured - think he was under the factory kawi rig, but kept the PC gear and bike.
Obviously Marchbanks was a rider I guess poached from PC, but only because it was beneficial to all parties.
I don't think Mitch has any intention of ever running a 450 effort. I can see your thought process, but regardless Kawi and the big bike class are doomed for many years sadly, especially if they end up losing their Monster deal end of next year.
Levi and Shimoda probably are the best long term riders they could get, but I can see Honda keeping Jo and running 3x 450's. As for Levi - great guy and rider, but can't see him being a race winning 450 guy - sorry.
Outside of that, Kawi will need to take on some of the KTM 250 riders - Ryder D etc, or go for a big move on Cole Davies if him and Deegz can't play happy families in 28.
We shouldn’t be calling for any factory effort to be canned. The sport carries more credibility when it has direct manufacturer involvement.
Whatever the factory team’s issues are currently, it won’t last forever. They’ll rise again.
Don’t forget Honda’s drought 2004–
Imagine if Honda had dumped their efforts and left.
I’ve seen this mentioned multiple times. But I can’t see how this is a good idea. PC hasn’t won a title since Pre-Covid other than that SMX gimmick title this year, plus their program consistently gets riders injured more than all the other teams. I can’t see adding even more bikes and riders to develop to a program that hasn’t worked in a long time being a good plan.
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I've been wondering if Mitch only hires riders that crash a lot OR if PC bikes lead to a lot of crashes?
I'll be watching Cameron Mcadoo with renewed interest on the Quadlock Honda.
one other factor to add in besides riders and/or bikes is the program they run in general.
The amount of number one plates on the PC rig would beg to differ.
Yeah for sure, It's only been the past 5-10 years or so
Agreed, PC has their own issues they are trying to deal with.
PC threw DeanO on a 450 outdoors for 2013 as well. I think he broke a chain practicing after a couple of rounds and missed the rest of the season.
Dean Wilson also got a PC KX450 ride (with Tickle in his first 450 year i think?), did not last long tough…
Edit: ohh_454 got me with a couple seconds since i edited the text a bit 😅
A PC 250 isn’t a 450. 2012 was the last time they fielded a 450, and if I’m not mistaken, that was the bike that RV knew was instantly better from a ride across the parking lot.
Star was able to turn around the rep of the YZ450 in a short time. PC is having better luck than the 450 team, so maybe they could turn the rep of the factory 450 around like Star did. Tomac was saying years ago that he left Kawasaki because of things he was unhappy with about setup options on the bike and the teams polices. Now years later just about every rider who has left Kawasaki in the last 20 years has said similar things.
Perhaps PC could change that. I have not heard similar complaints about PC, but then again 250 riders tend to be less experienced than elite 450 guys.
How about Kawasaki gives Mitch a similar control over the 450 effort to what Star and Yamaha have with the 450 side of Star?
I would love to see RV be involved and be a team manager at some point. He has talked about how he would like to do that on past Pulp shows. I think that he could really help Sexton on the mental side of things. He seemed to be one of the strongest in that area.
PC needs to focus on winning the 250 titles first...
Maybe, but the 250 team seems to be working better as a team than the 450 team. Maybe its out there and I have missed it, but I just have not seen any riders complain about Mitches team and the effort they put in to making riders comfortable like I have from riders that have been on the 450 team. Riders that rode for both teams have been vocal about the issues on the 450 side.
I don't think that it takes winning a 250 title to run a team well. Look at how much more consistent Kitchen has gotten on the Kawasaki VS his time at Star. And how many times Mitch has helped revive careers .And the results of fill in riders. He seems to have a good handle on setting up bikes to get the most from a rider and riders often become much stronger mentally after riding on his team. I think that is the thing that helped Kitchen become much more consistent.
If nothing else, Kawasaki could benefit from mirroring the way Mitch has been doing some things to help get the best from each rider. Of course there have been some riders who did not do well there too. But that number is much smaller than the number of guys that do well. And you never here the guys that did not do well say anything bad about developing the bike like what is said about the 450 team. Whatever he's doing on the mental side of things seems to help.
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